pink dot is the studio's spice spot handcrafted with memories and you know I feel like I know this place because of you know fanboy doubt you know during sort of videos that are going up online and stuff you making Rick woods in here and I made you the vultures Rick wood in here and he does some monkeys and you know but but the list is you know from the hives to gaga we did Lady gaga
spinner rates recorded in here she's been around yeah and the Eagles death metal and and but other bands have you know two rented it it's not it's not a commercial place but it's sort of like how do you daddy do that and you judge that well I die I have all my secrets in here and I have my my the things I care about that you know I have you know pictures of me as a really short person here and and and so I I I'm careful
about who I I let in and it's basic it's based on money no I trust you yeah I trust this check you know sick that's it's not gonna cash itself this new album is uh you know ferocious and brilliant and freewheeling and arrangement and brilliantly produced and mixed and it's got the essence of these great songs and then just want to think you know you're gonna put a ribbon on it and put the Box on the shelf you know
you unwrap it again throw it against the wall and it's just it's just a great really great ride man nine songs yeah grind songs is the right thing for now I think too because it's not quite enough see you met mark when you're working on gaga right I did I'd met him a couple late nights before that here and there within an hour of working him with him on this Lady Gaga stuff the references that glossary you used to talk about
stuff and what was important to him and I realized there's grand overlap of interest and fascination and elation in the in in making music you know because you know for you your producer Josh you produced vultures you produce monkeys you produce Queens of the Stone Age you know you've know what you need to know make your record sound big so why producer at all in particular beyond the glossary
why him because you know how you want your band to sound yeah well and Dennis - to a certain extent I know that it could also I could render someone may so that's unchangeable you know and so there's a safety and knowing that but also I think it's it's our seventh record and we have we have the luxury of having found a sound that's ours but by the seventh record if you're not careful that's parody and you end up cartoon
character on the wall and I think a sad clown yeah that sad sad clown is in here no I think there's a need to sort of identify who you are now and while that the most dangerous game is to retain that sense of self and take the risk to be something new and I realized that that's really where I wanted to go with this especially because that would be exciting - if you could if you could
unlock that code of re orientating your sound then your you know your newest record needs to be the very best one that's made off of the experience and failures of the last one so that you could actually I mean that could make you a better person you know you could leave baggage behind there's so much that could happen if you make a great record and you really mean it was it exciting was it fun to make uh you know
it's interesting is that we always have fun because we get along and we are honest and talk about things but they get more difficult to make somehow you know you think you're you're making something that wasn't there but somehow it feels like a mining taking something out and then it's gone if I can find a way to be really honest and especially if it feels scary that's the right direction you know because everyone's
afraid is but now what are you gonna do and honestly who cares because in the last couple of years especially but I've always been obsessed with now knowing that that's all you'll ever get you will not you know too much worried about yesterday or tomorrow it's really cheating yourself well put that on what was the tipping point for that was becoming a dad or watching grow was an experience aside from life I
had an experience when I was young where I almost you know didn't make it in and and where I had to swim and swim and swim and and I've and I I remember getting out of the water after her like a long time and and sort of making and thinking I'm not gonna wait for anything you know this is really no point in waiting because it could just be like that and and and I think that was always
a little bit in me anyways I know when I was about 12 and and and then things have occurred where I felt better when I took advantage of now and well and then didn't feel great when I waited when I felt like I should have and not wanting to say I should have and then you know you have things in the last you know year and a half that really have cemented all that in you know where someone could punch your ticket and that
would be it and then I have no interest in waiting and I and I also want to influence people not to wait because I you know we don't do politics and all that we're like an ice cream parlor or an arcade you know you just go and get away from your other worlds you know I don't want Queens to be have any relevance in like your daily grind unless it's like you know and and so I I I feel like encouraging if we're gonna
slather something all over you it should be like now is the time feet don't fail me right that's an appropriate way to start a new Rick would then yeah you know and it's it's got this really great tension at the beginning of it the sense that something is coming this impending like doom it's behind you you know in the past we've you know we've expected you to come out with the Hema made
entirely of concrete and smashed us around the face and you actually take us to the dance floor with this with first record yeah III think that notion of trying to meld the fact that some of your hobbies - I love to go dancing you know I just and that and I think it's a really great symbol of your willingness if you're willing to dance you know and influence people to dance they influence people to take now seriously
and and and also it's a dirty little trick upfront you know it's kind of it's almost like that's the old us in the front and then you smash that I think I saw it on the record is on enjoy it's cool the way you used to and that's actually the way you used to do which is bad English but that's okay yeah is that what it's officially cool yeah the way you used to do yeah the way you used to do my cut it's like to teach your
biggest hit record and you just do with the title it's just the meaning the way you formerly wanted to I guess blow up to 53 in the hour this is like they want to do it would they used to do it this is blazer coming at your cordless it was fun to be the DJ with all that you know hey that's why I'm good I got it you coming back yeah I'm gonna come back so that song whatever it's called yeah
there's two and doing it something like that that is a good time that's a good time you know and really the central the central component of that song is the most simple thing you've ever done yeah and when you clap right now I think when you clap in tempo this is what I'm gonna geek out some people will hear that like four on the floor but when that clap comes in even before you hear anything else around it it's clearly
swinging it all stems from what you love - ai-ai-ai-ai la you know in the morning mornings can be tough for you a morning person nope III I also am NOT a morning person less we stayed up and then I'm like it's the morning I feel a sense of pride you know I was like but I'm looking for ways to avoid grumpiness in the morning because that's not way start today so this is it cab calloway Dean Martin you know if you listen many many of the
mutrah and like all the swing and stuff you know that sort of swing just after morning after morning after morning for like a few years of just going there you know you start to go sound like if we did that yeah like where do we belong in all of this one of the wheel songs on the record which I absolutely love and is a classic example of Queens of the Stone Age and you know at your most sort of unruly and
and just like the arrangement wise is domesticated animals and you just push and push and push and push and push and push and push and I'm exhausted I'm like you sleep come on you're like nope and you push the button it just keep it's a human but I could you bring it back but it's a remarkable piece of music I mean I you know I think it's very episodic maybe and there was a couple things that were important it has
four endings you know that right yeah yeah but you know you never know it's like choose your own it's a buffet view you're asking why Ronson - and I think one of the reasons was to act like a talents been as a reminder of you know you know listening to uptown funk right it's very tight and vacuous it sounds great and I was like I I want I knew I wanted to make something very tight and with
the air sucked out of it and very clean clear or you know and so he was just a great reminder as just as an opening and then his desires are so beat centric and so are mine that we had this tremendous amount of overlap and then you know that's sort of giggling over the gold like the excitement of creating something he has that and so for something like domesticated animals which was almost called where the gold
is because it you know that it was very episodic and had you know we during the making of this we can I kept calling things we're going to crescendo camp where things take over for a second because it was like why can't something take over the mix and bury it and then you let when it's when the you know when the tablecloth is pulled you reveal this next thing and he was very into that idea so was mark Rankin who we worked
with on the last record as well and so you know you get these philosophies that you start working on and they they sort of take over and you know domesticate animals was just the a great example of what we're willing to do I want to talk to you about I mean bold to say but I'll protect myself a little bit I'll say one of your finest songs ever and I think probably most touching song ever which
is fortress which is just man s Cyrus I mean I listened to that was the last I listened to a game before I came instead talk to you I had to put on the car just isolated outside the tracklisting just listen to it again I sat outside playing ducking and you know here in Los Angeles and just listening to got out of my car and I it was a moment like lyrically you've really you've nailed that one well I think you know we both have our
we're both fathers you know and one if you've ever and more over than that if you've ever struggled with somebody or wanted to to try to give them the best of you and in the hopes that it helps them you know and you know I think what you also realize it's like if you really love something you do you agree to throw yourself give yourself away to it no matter you know if you just if you're gonna destroy me then that's what's
gonna happen and I'm okay with that and and so I and again that that being the most vulnerable you can be that's you know that's kind of becoming where I want to I want to be honest that way because you know my daughter can always listen to that song and even when I'm gone she'll have that you know and the music is my way of saying things that are difficult for me to understand and say and in many
cases I I learned to say the things after I play them because I it's the best teacher for me you know and and also I am able to address things that are difficult for me to to get out otherwise and I think I think you know I've come from a school of things where it's like the rug that's for sweeping under you know and I and but playing allows me to like pull that back and that's I've sort of banked my whole way
of life on that and that's why that's why if I'd have a lyric that I don't support I I can't sing it I go you fraud you fat you'll watch me pacing back and forth going you know talking to myself going you know you how dare you even try to say oh now you're gonna sing that there you're gonna all this other you're gonna walk in here and sing that on and it's like you know if the amount of times
I've been like I need a minute we're to talk to this person I look and there's no one there and I think oh my god I but I have banked everything on it being real for me so that so I can't cheat and like if that's why you know feet don't fail me now was much more braggadocious I would say which is in BIG's idea band - yeah because yeah because you know eventually you go you go you go well I'm
sick of feeling this way so you you know and and that's how I feel you know and so smooth sailin comes out of that where it's like well I don't care anymore and it's from a good place you know but you had to get to get to right fortress to get to that point it's like yeah you have to admit that there's fortress you know to get to that place and I reckon you must because that's the balance yeah I mean you must be very
difficult I'd imagine and I mean this is a compliment when you're not in that place when you were in the thick of of doing vocals and writing lyrics or whatever I think you know I don't mind saying this now because I'm sure you weren't care but remember we had Dave on the show there they live Dave Grohl and and and in between the songs he was like I got studio twice without making this new drinking tequila and Mark was in the
boards and you were doing vocals having a real problem my problem with this thing you were just like ah intense Josh and Mark was like no I love that Ronson did that though because because but but and really exemplifies why I I really loved working with Ronson why I would come really close because he protected me in that moment and in a certain way he protected Dave too because I you know it's no secret I like
you know I sometimes I see red and I'd really don't have any friends or family in that moment I just get so you know I and I wish I didn't you know I sometimes feel like a boat in a china shop do you go through life kind of assuming that you have to have a little money in the bank just in case the good because you you can be that guy I do we do the I do hid like a haunted house right yeah that is right um so
let's talk about that one I mean that one actually that's unusual for this particular record because it clocks it under six minutes which is what is it why did that we'll make it onto the record just a few words from the artist about why you love that song I love that song because it screams yeehaw and your face to wake you up you know and you know it sort of probably has the fits and the shapes you know I've always
liked the the like the gentle sickness of being out of control you know and I think that song when you listen to it from the first time you hear it you realize you're behind it it's taken off in front of you you know it's like a runaway horse you just go after it but you never you know you need to catch it yeah who when you came up with the title unreal how long did you actually laugh
for Unruh born again yeah I just think that's I think we're still laughing now really is there a story about making that particular song in the studio is it something that was particularly challenging who unique about that I'm reborn again yeah well I think in a very in an old-school Queens way I we would have gone really long or something and sort of in a linear fashion you know things would come in and out but there's
a really great surprise on that song that's right at the kind of apex moment and I think what happens a couple of times in this record - and I wondered whether that was a you and Mark like hey man what if I well I I really I I've started from my own perspective that I wanted to make things instead of long just tall dense with information and end and I really want to genuinely surprised people at moments in the music and I
think Roth like in the where where you really hear Ronson's impact is something like haunted house which there's just you know you know that song could have been just a really straightforward punk rock song and he really was driving for like like things popping yeah like every and he was like you know you wanted offense and so let's go and so he he was really instrumental in driving events in that song the
impact of your work with Iggy Pop on post pop depression which is an amazing record and you know an incredible if it is his final album an incredible final album you know it is most heard in my opinion on hideaway I like I feel like that's a song with the use of the sense and the arrangement and the feeling of this and the feeling of that song feels like that moment so much yeah I mean I I
learned you know I I feel like I learn a lot every record and you know with the Iggy record there's so much space in between things and also endings like focused a lot on you know and the the last 10% is where most people give up it's true the end of hide away is like it's a beautiful reward something happens that you have not heard and and and and I spent a lot of time on endings with Iggy like you need to get to a part
we have not heard that but that is part of the rest of the song really you know and so hideaway has that that moment of like and and there's an optimistic feel to that song like but really it was writing about the cover you know it's like you know the devil certainly would at some point be like we're moving to Hollywood yeah and see if we can you know someone's on the edge here you know it's a strange town like that yeah and I
think it's Taylor cut for standing on the veranda being like you know I'm gonna get a lot of people to travel south what's your favorite Iggy Pop memory of working with a key on that record what's your favorite memory I loved the mornings waking up together and say mornin Iggy and just we when we were in the desert it's he and I that were in one house and and the guys were staying at the different
little houses on the property and and you know I as I said in there too you know people always want to tell you what the truth is you know what the truth is and I just don't like that that much you know I like to do something and then witness our collective truth together you know and so I really just I think eggy has been at the vanguard of music ahead of his time so much that it's lonely you know that Stooges are
time-release of 30 years and his his great solo records were there are only 12 years ahead of their time you know it's like and I think there's a lot of loneliness associated with that and feeling not respect in your time and I loved seeing that him realize to a certain degree the vast amount of people that are a key supporter is just waiting for their moment to get together and so so and I mean I know he understands
people take him but I like I love that everything's sold out in about 30 seconds you know because it was a great example of how people feel about him and it was a good way of for me to explain how I felt about him and so I liked being part of something like that that was a good explanation about this is how people think of you you know is he a morning person yes he is yeah and I also you know from
four years of sort of used egg is a litmus test for a few things like intake yeah and things like that yeah yeah cuz you know he's had well-documented moments of being on stuff you know and um but he still is able to have you know a glass with he has a you know a bottle of wine every you know each night at dinner one and it's like it's like I'd take that that's awesome because uh you know I don't like do a
lot of the way the world is set up a little bit you know and like you're supposed to do this and you're supposed to that it's like that's what you would say if you were trying to keep your hand on someone's head you know you would say that like you got to carve your own path and find your own way and I think he's done a wonderful job of that and it's inspiring because I like to do that too
I like to find the way that's right for me and influence people to find the way that's right for them you know the evil has landed is just one of my favorite things you guys have ever done just immediately the first time I heard it it's just got all of this kind of like you talked about the global spherical nature of writing songs and that one just feels like we're constantly doing this barnyard dance around with this
riff attached and it's and you know it's one of those things where it's a tough but it's six minutes it goes by side twists and and nothing ever really repeats itself very much and when it does it's spinning around yeah so it's kind of like it's a really short version of what that would have been in an old-school way it's the shortest version you know yeah yeah and I also think there's a bit of like my early
influence and of the it's just got a very desert style yeah there's a bit of science you know and a bit of like I feel like you're never too far away from that and even just being here in the valley you know I feel like you know you could reach out and grab those mountains you know and I feel like you're always yoake you've moved to the Big Smoke here in Los Angeles you know you've got family here your kids go to school here
yada yada yada but I always feel like you're never too far away from the desert well I'm the one when I when I first moved here I mean I never thought I was gonna live anywhere in particular I never I think a lot of people moved to Los Angeles going well I'll stay here for a couple years and it's I think I don't even know I think it's been like 18 years here I don't know I but I always go back to the des all the time
and I well when I moved here I moved to the valley because it was used to having a yard because everyone the art has a yard space and I thought wolf yes ever ever goes down here I know all the back roads to get to the home you know so I moved here based on like it like a doomsday prepper how do I get home you know like I remember when I bought if you're prepping for doomsday we are all completely by the well you know it's
like I'm I am I've armed to the teeth with cans of food and arms the teeth yeah I mean even when I bought this motorcycle is like okay I can put Brody here I can put one of the kids here and this thing that's cuz wow you always have one on the door yeah man cuz you know it's crazy out there the world's a crazy place have you worked it out have you worked out what what the future looks like in the desert
and when it all ends have you gone well one of the great things is in the DES you can see someone coming oh my god full Mad Max oh man there you go oh my god they're coming in 20 minutes later like we're still coming they're still coming because they can in your dream it'll be you in your souped-up Cadillac but really the reality is it'll be in the Toronto I got a great little place in this canyon and
so it's like and it's up high I don't remember oh man this is like giving away too much but I'm never buying thinking like okay it's up high and see if they're sexually water behind it over there and and I'm kind of muttering to myself and the lady was like sorry what are you saying I was like it's too good but I you know I always I always have I always have you know planned for rain but prayed for Sun you know yeah the
album closes with a song called villains of consequence which in some respects their circumstance caught go ahead yeah it's is it ends with a song called villains of consequence villains of circumstance god it you the song the album ends with anals of kwasind stops is that some weird New Zealand I don't even think I'm gonna call it villains just so that we can finish this interview so it's a title check of sorts
yeah yeah it is and you know you know the song because I wrote it and about 20 minutes before I you interviewed me it was a yeah we lost bleona no we were in Ljubljana how do you remember that I mean I'm dude I'm remember someone and we were in a church up on a hill yeah I think yeah yeah yeah and you and you put out your guitars this is a great story he was like hey you know what that was a great interview
I'm just god I'm gonna play you guys a song you've never heard before he pulls guitar like I'm gonna smash this played it and how did you play Joe I went down I went down no way but by then too I'd been drinking all this tequila like cuz they're like plying me with booze like I like he needs us to say something whatever he's gonna say with Japanese vote say anything and so I go well wait
duh Dubrow wait and I just blew it so hard that all these balloons filled up behind me but it's hard seriously it's hard now it yeah it it was so brand-new and I I that was the second tune I had for this is the plan to carry on for us until you drop is that the plan because it's so much fun and you enjoy it and it's your life and you can be vented this is this is what I do and I it's too late I'm chained to
this wheel and I'm gonna do this till till it's all over you know and that and really the the goal is to make your last record your best record which is the most difficult thing to do and that's what I want to do so yeah I'm just gonna keep doing that I asked Dave the other day I gotta ask you man because I know I know what the immediate future holds and there's queens touring to be done and you've always been a
really faithful relentless touring band but what's what's the appetite for vultures record III would love to do that so much I you know I keep it really is about time it's about time and we we've been talking about that and because it's one of those things we're not even we would understand where to go that sounds so exciting like what would you do and say well you know it's sort of like the way Gilligan's Island was
started it's just a three-hour cruise and it turns into something else yeah plus I love Dave & Jones so much that chance to spend time together I think you end up working with someone that you care about just so you can hang out and spend the time because there's so little time to do stuff and that's the greatest excuse of all you know to work with somebody is to like spend time with them